whisper each to each, "Thou hast a double;"
no cuticle, or smallest superfluity of skin, as
had been granted to the Siamese, to hint
that as a ditto somewhere. Long
Experience, our only common mother, was
left to teach us this; and in my education,
at least, that lady has proved herself a
Tartar.

My first introduction to a knowledge of
the other lusus was not till some few years
ago. As I was walking along Fleet Street,
on my way into the City on business, I was
saluted from behind with a most tremendous
thwack across the shoulders. I turned round
between purple and white; for, angry as I
was, a little reminiscence flashed across me
of a certain bill transaction – a thing that
will mix itself up somehow with the wine
trade – and I thought it just possible that
this assault had arisen from some unprofessional
view of that matter: but an utter
stranger, with outstretched hand and beaming
smile, confronted me.

"Deeloighted to see you, old boi," said he.
"How is the woife and the piccanninnies?"

"Sir," I replied, rubbing my back as well
as I was able, " I am a bachelor."

"D'ye mane to say ye are not Blobbs?"
said he.

"Certainly I do, sir," answered I, with
warmth.

"Well, then, it's nothing more nor less
than a coincidence," said he.

"Sir," said I, " it is a blister." And it was
a blister.

The very next day, and almost in the same
place, across the shoulders, I received two
thwacks from that identical cane, and in the
same unmistakeable Hibernian accents, I
heard it shouted; " I took another man for
you yesterday, Blobbs; but, bedad, I've got
you to-day."

I happened to have a nephew at Wadham
College, Oxford, at that time; and, not
without an eye to business, I went down to
stay there for a week. I had heard a good
deal before of the hospitality of the University,
but the cordial manner of those Fellows
did surprise me.

"Well, how are you, old boy? So, you
are come down to see us at last," exclaimed
one, at the very gate, as he shook my hand
most heartily. " But you're getting bald,
my friend – henpecked about the crown – eh,
eh? And you're stouter than you were, too,
a good deal."

"Really, sir," I began, "these familiar
remarks" – but my nephew came up just at
that moment, and prevented any explanation.
In the combination room, after dinner, I sat
next to the sub-warden, and was treated
with all imaginable kindness. "I have some
wine of this character," I was casually
remarking, as I held the glass up against a
candle, " that has been with me this twenty
years."

"Then I don't know where you put it to,"
observed a gruff voice, lower down. " For
a man who drinks habitually, I must say,
I don't know worse wine than yours."

"Don't you mind what Savage says," said
the sub, gently; " you know his strange
ways."

"But I do mind what Savage says, sir," I
replied; " and I don't know his ways. I am
not going to sit here, and hear my wine run
down by Savage, or any other man."

"Why, Blobbs, Blobbs, you did not use to
be so touchy as that up here," interposed the
dean; " bad at chapels, bad at lectures,
shocking bad at knocking-in, but always
good-tempered and ready to take a joke."

"Gentlemen," exclaimed I, " once for all, I
am not Blobbs!"

Alas! it was but little good for me to say
"once for all; " I went out to breakfast at
another college, and was purposely introduced
to everybody as Richard Withers; but the
association of ideas proved almost as bad as
the confusion of persons, and I was asked
about six times whether I knew Blobbs of
Wadham. I got quite to know when it was
coming, by the way in which the interrogator
would survey my features, give a little smile
at the absurd likeness, and begin his question
with " Mr. Withers? " to prevent himself
from addressing me by the wrong name. I
astonished one of these persons a good deal
when he had got thus far by anticipating the
rest, and saying –

"No; I don't know Blobbs at all," which
rather terrified him.

The disadvantages of my resemblance to
this person have been counterbalanced by no
benefits; nobody has ever paid me money for
Blobbs, or asked me to dinner, or given me so
much as a lift in his carriage; no charming
young creature has ever embraced me by
mistake, as being the wife or sister of me,
Withers. On the contrary, Mrs. Blobbs has
been presented to me, more than once, in the
form of a Nemesis, or avenging female. At
the casinos and the like, for instance, which
I solemnly assert I only visit as the haunts
in which sundry young gentlemen, with whom
I am professionally connected are most likely
to be found, it has been often whispered to
me –

"Lucky Mrs. Blobbs don't see you here
tonight, my boy; " and, on one occasion, " If you
don't lend me that fifty we were speaking
about, as sure as you live I'll tell your wife." I
should not wonder if some domestic
recriminations took place somewhere in consequence
of my firm refusal; I believe and hope that
Blobbs is not altogether exempt from the
results of our similitude: that the toil and
truth of our double has befallen him likewise.

After a few score of these mistakes had
happened, I learned to take them quietly
enough; if I was arrested for debt, or even
lodged in Newgate for murder, to-morrow, it
would not much distress me; " It's Blobbs,"